Please help me build a monk better at combat!

[apsuman]

I know more about 3.5 but...

get enlarge person on your monk for big fights, the extra damage from your fists can be really good.

magic weapon/magic fang on your fists if necessary.

with your wis score you should have better than average luck at stunning fist attacks.

I didn't see dodge mobility and spring attack, that feat chain can give the monk some really good attacks.

I suggest you find synergy with your teammates. Web to capture the baddies and then you could run around the edge and hit those in your range. Or, instead of trying to dish it out, play on the defense and let the other players (casters) do their job and you protect them.

Bull's Str, Cat's Grace, and Owl's wisdom are your friends.

Ambush.

Your saves are good enough that you could run/tumble into the middle of the bad guys and have the wizards drop a fireball or two on YOU and survive with evasion and a really good save.

If you have improved trip or improved disarm use them, especially on AOOs because even thought they fail a significant amount of the time (30-45%) when they do succeed they put the opponent in a really bad spot for their next initiative.

Instead

 

[Roman]

As DanMcS pointed out, you can still perform all your monk abilities at 5', even while holding a 2-handed weapon, though of course--as I think you were pointing out--you wouldn't be able to use your monk abilities while attacking at 10' with the guisarme.

Actually, I did not know monks could do that in the first place. This is good news.

This does change things, and I can now see why you posted this in the first place. Like it or not, you are the most logical choice for the second front-line combatant.

I should have probably posted the hit point stats in the first place - sorry for not doing so (in fact, I do not know the precise hit points of other characters, but they are in the range I have given).

As that's the case, you're going to have to start thinking like a tank. A tank's main duty isn't necessarily to deal damage. It's to stay alive long enough for the enemy to be taken down. While engaging the enemy in melee to prevent that enemy from turning his attention onto the more tender and juicy PCs in the back. That said, you'll have to start thinking about what every tank is thinking about.

1. Raise your AC. With an int of 10, Combat Expertise is out, which is unfortunate. Keep in mind that you can Fight Defensively and, because you have 5 ranks in Tumble, gain a +3 to AC for a -4 to attacks. Against tougher foes, this can keep you alive long enough for your party to take a baddie down. If you find yourself needing to block a doorway as a delaying tactic (recently my paladin need to do this to prevent new foes from entering a room while we were still fighting others,) consider Total Defense for +4 to AC, though you lose the opportunity to attack (including AoOs.)

Hmm, perhaps I should also raise Dex at level 8. That will get me another +1 bonus to AC, as well as the reflex save and a host of skills.

2. Raise your hp. Here you're actually in good condition. +3 con bonus is nice, and you've rolled well. Still, as the front-line tank, you can never have enough hp! Start looking for a con-boosting item (if they exist in your game, which looks to be extremely low magic).

The game may indeed be lower on the availability of magic items scale or it may not be, but since it is one of my first direct experiences with 3E I cannot really compare it to other games very well to gauge whether this is the case or not. I am not sure if con-boosting items exist in the game. Most likely they do, but even if such items exist they will probably be very difficult to obtain.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Something else to consider is planning strategy with your spellcasters. If you're fighting numerous lower-level foes, your AC and hit points may hold up just fine. But when facing single powerful melee opponents (dragons, etc.) have your spellcasters spend their first round in combat buffing you guys up. Endurance, Cat's Grace and Owl's Wisdom would boost you up immensely.

This wouldn't be a tactic for every combat, but with a slightly weaker front-line, your spellcasters should be ready to bolster the line when it looks like it may need some extra support to hold.

 

[Roman]

Something else to consider is planning strategy with your spellcasters. If you're fighting numerous lower-level foes, your AC and hit points may hold up just fine. But when facing single powerful melee opponents (dragons, etc.) have your spellcasters spend their first round in combat buffing you guys up. Endurance, Cat's Grace and Owl's Wisdom would boost you up immensely.

This wouldn't be a tactic for every combat, but with a slightly weaker front-line, your spellcasters should be ready to bolster the line when it looks like it may need some extra support to hold.

We generally face a few tough opponents or a decent number of mediocre opponents - hordes of weak opponents are rare to say the least. Last fight (the one in which the fighter/ranger died) we faced 8 homebrew flying construct-like fiendish creatures which drain Con and heal themselves by doing so. We were saving a city and had assistance from the guards, but that was nonetheless a very nasty fight - it was very, very close to a TPK and if the fighter/ranger who died did not have whirlwind it would have definitely been a TPK. Nonetheless, these creatures have been mostly defeated. There is only 1 left we know about and we will need to seek it out and destroy it so that it does not pester the city. Once we do so, I have no idea what creatures we will face - it could be anything. Most likely, it will be other homebrew creatures, since our DM loves creating new critters. I do not know yet what spells the new wizard will have - hopefully he will take many buff spells. Wizards are modified in this campaign, since the DM deemed normal wizards to be severely underpowered, so they use the spell point system and all damage dice they roll on their spells increase by 1 die type (magic missile rolls d6s, fireball rolls d8s, etc.), so absorbing damage and letting the wizards do the slaughtering, while protecting them might indeed be a good tactic now that we will have a wizard show up regularly.

 

[atra2]

Your DM is far outside my comfort zone in terms of his house rules. Good thing I live 3,000 miles away.

But, so long as you're having fun, the polearm/spiked chain thing is indeed a good idea.
Bumping your DEX at 8th is also a good idea.

Also consider the Improved Grapple feat. You have a decent Strength (16) and vs.
a lot of Medium foes, you can lock a foe down tight so the rest of your party can
beat up another foe, then eventually get around to thwacking your grapple buddy.

If your group can afford it, monetarily, make the switch to 3.5. Everything is much
better. You can, by the way, seamlessly allow PCs to use the 3.5 Player's Handbook
while the DM continues to use his 3.0 DMG and MM, though he's advised to upgrade
all 3 of his books.

Your game "feel" as you've described it reminds me of a 1E DM's attitude running a 3E
rulebook game. Bleh! Once more I am glad I live 3,000 miles away!

 

[Spatula]

You mean that they no longer get a special unarmed attack progression to combine with the flurry of blows?

Right. In 3.5, monks lose the unarmed attack progression (which was a needless complication), and flurry of blows is much better. There are also more weapons that you can flurry with, you get ki strike earlier, and the bonus feats (Stunning Fist, Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip in 3.0) are more flexible.

 

[Roman]

I know more about 3.5 but...

get enlarge person on your monk for big fights, the extra damage from your fists can be really good.

magic weapon/magic fang on your fists if necessary.

Ok, so I will recommend that the new wizard takes enlarge as one of his spells.

with your wis score you should have better than average luck at stunning fist attacks.

I didn't see dodge mobility and spring attack, that feat chain can give the monk some really good attacks.

Well, I did take dodge in preparation for the chain...

I suggest you find synergy with your teammates. Web to capture the baddies and then you could run around the edge and hit those in your range. Or, instead of trying to dish it out, play on the defense and let the other players (casters) do their job and you protect them.

Yes, this suggestion is very reasonable, though once the arcane casters are out of spells it is back to combat.

Your saves are good enough that you could run/tumble into the middle of the bad guys and have the wizards drop a fireball or two on YOU and survive with evasion and a really good save.

He, he, the last time the wizard tried that the monk failed the save and the baddies did not - upon which the already damaged monk went unconscious. Sure it was just unlucky, but it was funny in a bad way nonetheless.

If you have improved trip or improved disarm use them, especially on AOOs because even thought they fail a significant amount of the time (30-45%) when they do succeed they put the opponent in a really bad spot for their next initiative.

If we fight humanoid opponents I will do that.

 

[Roman]

Right. In 3.5, monks lose the unarmed attack progression (which was a needless complication), and flurry of blows is much better. There are also more weapons that you can flurry with, you get ki strike earlier, and the bonus feats (Stunning Fist, Combat Reflexes and Improved Trip in 3.0) are more flexible.

Hmm, that sounds pretty good.

 

[Roman]

Your DM is far outside my comfort zone in terms of his house rules.

Well, the DM likes to use house rules quite a lot. There are the house rules I already mentioned and some others. For example, the XP required to advance a level is higher than in normal games (the XP progression is: 2,000 XP for 2nd level, 4,000 XP for 3rd level, 8,000 XP for 4th level, 16,000 XP for 5th level, 24,000 XP for 6th level, 36,000 for 7th level and so on) in order to slow down level advancement. There are is the houserule creating semi-permanent ability drain (which is what the flying constructs have), which is something in between ability damage and ability drain. There are some others too.

But, so long as you're having fun, the polearm/spiked chain thing is indeed a good idea.
Bumping your DEX at 8th is also a good idea.

Ok, this does seem to be the path the monk will take.

Also consider the Improved Grapple feat. You have a decent Strength (16) and vs.
a lot of Medium foes, you can lock a foe down tight so the rest of your party can
beat up another foe, then eventually get around to thwacking your grapple buddy.

Hmm... I have not really considered grappling. The types of opponents we have been fighting so far don't really lend themselves to it, but if that changes it may be a worthwhile thing to do.

If your group can afford it, monetarily, make the switch to 3.5. Everything is much
better. You can, by the way, seamlessly allow PCs to use the 3.5 Player's Handbook
while the DM continues to use his 3.0 DMG and MM, though he's advised to upgrade
all 3 of his books.

Although I do not have 3.5E (yep, for monetary reasons), the rest of the people in the group all have it and they would share not mind letting me use their books so that is workable in principle, but the DM prefers the 3rd edition for the most part, although he does use smatterings of 3.5E rules here and there.

Your game "feel" as you've described it reminds me of a 1E DM's attitude running a 3E
rulebook game. Bleh! Once more I am glad I live 3,000 miles away!

I have never played 1E, so I cannot compare the styles. We are a quite pliant group of players - basically we willingly go along with any house rule that the DM makes based on the philosophy that he is trying to make the game fun for everyone and give his campaign world a specific feel, which the house rules can enhance and he knows best which house rules are the most appropriate for his campaign world. We do this with every DM we play with every DM we play (this is not the only campaign we are involved in). The philosophy has worked well so far - I am currently in 3 campaigns and all of them have vastly different feels, which makes for more variety and is therefore enjoyable. Of course, I fully recognise that not all people enjoy every feel of the game and the preferences are individual.

 

[Roman]

I would like to say: thank you! That applies to everybody who offered his or her suggestions. Our next game is on Friday (tomorrow or today depending on which timezone you are in) and the advice will aid me greatly in helping the monk compensate for the loss of the party's primary fighter.